Christmas Day forecast comes into better focus; a fallstreak hole over Houston

Good morning. Houston’s weather will now warm up through the weekend, with some healthy rain chances, before a cold front moves through late on Christmas Eve, or early on Christmas morning. This should bring cooler and drier weather into Houston for the holiday, and most of the week leading up to New Year’s Day.

Before jumping into the forecast I wanted to share a photo from a reader, Jaime Aguilar, who lives near spring. Jaime took this photo on Tuesday morning while out for a walk. It shows a ‘fallstreak hole,’ a fairly rare meteorological phenomenon that occurs when water in clouds suddenly freeze, and falls. This is sometimes induced by a passing airplane. I thought others might have seen this, so I wanted to explain the phenomenon.

Wednesday

Temperatures are starting out in the 50s this morning, and they’ll rise to about 70 degrees today. We’ll see a mix of sunshine and clouds, as highs push up to about 70 degrees. Winds will be a bit more prominent, out of the east at 10 mph, with gusts up to about 20 mph. Lows tonight will only drop into the upper 50s in Houston.

Thursday

Thursday will be a similar day, albeit with a few more clouds. Lows on Thursday night will be a few degrees warmer than Wednesday night, and we may see a few scattered, light showers develop after midnight.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

The weekend will see generally cloudy skies, with a decent shot of humidity, and highs of around 70 degrees or a tick warmer. Rain showers over the weekend will be on-and-off again affairs. Sunday—Christmas Eve—should be the most dynamic day in terms of rainfall and thunderstorm potential as a front approaches the region. I don’t think things are going to get too extreme, as most of the region will likely see 1 to 3 inches of rain through the weekend, but it could be messy at times. Something to consider if you have plans for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day

The good news is that, increasingly, it looks like the front will be pushed through Houston by Monday morning. This will reduce rain chances on the holiday to about 10 or 20 percent. I’d expect highs to reach the upper 60s with partly to mostly cloudy skies. Lows on Monday night will likely drop into the upper 40s as cooler and drier air moves in during the daytime.

Next week

Most of next week looks fairly pleasant and winter-like. Most probably we’re looking at days in the 60s, with lows in the 40s, and partly to mostly sunny skies.